PorkieBeans (i love that snack btw) I'm aware of muscle confusion, that's where the P90x (if I'm not being lazy) comes in. It's a new thing every day. Plus I only ahve pretzels as a snack (which i don't eat very many) if fruits aren't available. And as I stated below somewhere, I am doing 5 small meals and all that blah blah :)

My carb intake is about 136 - 140g's per day, btw.

One thing I have noticed is that once I started exercising regularly, eating decent foods regularly, and taking my vitamin/mineral supplements I've grown tired and sluggish all the time lately and my RLS (if that's what I have) has been occuring more often. :|

Oh, and by the way, the quick and dirty of a diabetic diet is to limit yourself to 150 carbs a day. 5 small meals a day work best, because your body can process the carbs (sugar) better without overloading your blood sugar. It is a really healthy diet.

Mix up your workouts more. You have to shock your body. I used to be involved in martial arts years ago, and I was in the best shape of my life. However, I did one hour of martial arts 6 days a week AND a 30 minute aerobic workout 3 days a week. Lately, strength training with free weights has helped me lose inches. At my fitness center, they recently ran a program where you did a different workout every single day for six weeks. Some days it was cardio, some days it was weights. Everyone at the center said this was the best program they had ever done, because your body never got used to the workout. You can really mix up an aerobic workout by changing the intensity. Like with a treadmill, doing a fast hard pace for 7 minutes, lowering the pace for 2, picking it up again for 7, etc. You would be surprised at the extra sweat this produces. Martial arts is one of the best exercises you can possibly do. I know I muscled up and gained weight when doing it. My calves got HUGE from all of the stances and drills. But I was very muscular, and it was a long lean muscle (except for my calves.

Drop the pretzels. They are pure carbs and hard to stop eating once you start. I agree, apples are great, and one of the least expensive fruits you can have. Eat less processed food if you can, and stick with foods in their most natural forms.

It tells you the breakdown by percentage, & you can click on the exchange listings. If you find this too confusing or tedious, let me know, & I can email my notes to you. I believe I have everything in Word & maybe Excel.

I think it's VERY likely you've lost fat & gained muscle, which weighs more. This could also change how your clothes fit -- are your sleeves tighter because you have muscles in your arms? Another thing that might be happening is fluctuations with your blood sugar. This is why I mentioned the diabetic diet. By sticking to the number of exchanges of each food throughout the day, you keep this pretty stable. I'm not an expert on the subject by any means, so for me it's easier to follow a plan someone who is an expert created. I don't really think you're doing any thing wrong, though.

M & Th - 1 hour of MMA (which is 10 minutes of wrestling and 50 minutes of either technique drills or a combo of technique drills/sparing)

When I'm not being lazy I'll do an hour of P90x (6 days a week) after my class whch depending on the day it's either cardio, plyo, weight training, stretching, or yoga)

For eating: For breakfast I'll have some good cereal like cheerios or honey bunch o' oats and fat free milk.

Snacks are either fruit or pretzels

Lunch is usually a turkey & cheese or ham and cheese sandwich no dressing and the cheese is fat free

Dinner is usually a lean cuisine or a boca burger or like lean boneless/skinless chicken and vegtables.

I usually stay within all my ranges. SO I don't know what I'm doing wrong.

Anyone see any flaws in my system? I was thinking maybe it was muscle mass that caused the weight gain because of all the heavy work outs but with that would be lost inches. But I'm either gaining inches or it's the same.

Well, I don't know if you'll want to take advice from me since I'm now only 8# down from my total starting weight, but I can tell you what worked when I lost 35#. I've had a very hard time getting motivated, & now that I'm working full-time it's even more difficult. I'm trying to get DH to do this with me. Both of us need some major lifestyle changes.

Anyway, this is what I did about 4 years ago when I lost weight:

I followed a diabetic diet, eating 3 meals a day with a nighttime snack. I didn't eliminate any food categories, & instead of counting calories, I counted food exchanges. For 1500 calories, this amounts to 2 milk, 3 veggie, 4 fruit, 6 bread, 6 meat, & 6 fat, although I think I was following as 1200 calorie plan. These are further broken down by meal, so you're not eating all of your fruits at breakfast, for instance.

I also worked out EVERY day, with Sunday being more dedicated to stretching. I took all of my video workouts & figured out which were the easiest & did them first, slowly progressing to harder workouts.

If I "blew" a day or even a meal, I just forgot it & continued on. I lost weight pretty steadily. I went from 180 to 145, size 16 to 12 with some 10's fitting. My feet used to really hurt me after doing a bit of walking, & that pain went away. (Now that I've put the weight back on, this problem has returned.) I felt better, & my self-esteem went way up.

I also kept a pretty detailed log of what I was eating & the workouts I did. I think I still have it here some place. My thought is that I may want to try to repeat this at some point, doing all the same workouts & such, although I don't have time to spend tracking things like I did back then.

I guess what makes it worse is I'm not doing the right things as far as meals are concerned. I watch my calorie intake between 1200-1550...If I don't work out I stay at 1200 if I work out 30 min to an hour I usually go to 1400-1500 calories...and I watch my protein, fat, and carb ranges but am I missing something.

Because it seems like I'm either staying the same weight or gaining weight and inches.

Well, I wouldn't go so far as to say worked so well, but here's what I do. I work out at home with videos, and I'm currently following a rotation called Look Great in Eight. At first I saw no results, but then I joined sparkpeople and got my eating under control and lost 5lbs. Basically I work out 6 days a week (usually), depending on the week I either do 3 or 4 days of strength training and regular cardio with at least one interval session thrown in. If you want the rotation let me know and I'll post it.

What you do each day is important because you are exchanging a day of your life for it.

So I'm having trouble losing weight. Even though I work out actively at least 4 days a week for at least an hour a day, and I stay within my 1200-1550 calorie range and I limit my fat intake but I watch my carbs and proteins too.

But it seems I'm not losing my weight or I gain weight and don't lose inches. So tell me ladies/gents...what do you do that has worked so well as far as exercise and eating goes.

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